A liquid crystal panel includes a pair of substrates, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the two substrates, and a seal, provided at peripheral edges of the pair of substrates, that seals in the liquid crystal layer. A liquid substance such as water may undesirably enter the liquid crystal panel, i.e. the liquid crystal layer, due to external infiltration, separation of an uncured component of a seal material, or the like. If an alignment film made of an inorganic material absorbs the liquid, alignment performance may be reduced. To maintain the alignment performance of the alignment film, an absorbent layer for absorbing the liquid may be provided in an upper layer relative to a layer in which the alignment film is provided between a display area and a sealant.
However, many alignment films are made of organic materials. Such an alignment film, an insulating film on a substrate surface, and a liquid crystal material may have relatively low wettability, that is, have great angles of contact. Accordingly, in the alignment film, the insulating film, and the liquid crystal material, a liquid substance turns into subglobular form (liquid bubble). When a liquid substance having turned into such a liquid bubble may move through the inside of the liquid crystal layer to penetrate into the display area. Then, once the liquid bubble penetrates into the display area, the liquid bubble disrupts the orientation of liquid crystals to cause display defects such as display irregularities and minute bright spots. In particular, in many cases of thermal shock testing, which is reliability testing on liquid crystal panels, expansion and contraction of the liquid crystal panels cause liquid bubbles to move to penetrate into the display areas. Further, the liquid crystal panel disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-181795 makes it necessary that in the step of fabricating a substrate of the liquid crystal panel, the step of forming an alignment film be followed by an additional step of forming an absorbent layer.